From the Hartford Courant, 10/26/97
Report Says U.S. Failed Gulf Veterans
by Thomas D. Williams
Federal agencies failed badly after the Persian Gulf War to diagnose, treat and properly compensate thousands of sick soldiers and veterans, a congressional report says.
"Sadly, when it comes to diagnosis, treatment and research for Gulf War veterans, we find the federal government has a tin ear, a cold heart and a closed mind," says the report, which was issued by a sub-committee chaired by U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays.
"We do not come to these conclusions lightly. Nor do we discount all that has been done to care for, cure and compensate Gulf War veterans. But lives have been lost and many more are at stake," says the report, obtained Saturday by The Courant.
Shays, R-4th District, and the sub-committee have held 11 hearings since February 1996 to get testimony from veterans and officials of the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other federal agencies.
The report includes testimony from Air Force Major Michael Donnelly of South Windsor and Army Major Barry Kapplan and his wife, Nancy, who is a nurse, both formerly of Southington.
The 140-page report, which will be reviewed by the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight Tuesday, hits hard at inaction not only by the VA and Defense Department, but also by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Central Intelligence Agency.
The FDA failed to properly oversee experimental drugs given to soldiers to protect them from chemical and biological warfare and the CIA failed to adequately warn troops of warfare dangers, the report says.
The efforts of all four of the agencies were "irreparably flawed," the report says. Spokesmen for all the agencies have conceded they have problems, but said they have been doing everything possible to assist sick veterans.
"We find those efforts hobbled by institutional inertia that mistakes motion for progress. We find those efforts plagued by arrogant incuriosity and a pervasive myopia that sees a lack of evidence as proof. As a result we find current approaches to research, diagnosis and treatment unlikely to yield answers to veterans' life-or-death questions in the forseeable or even the far distant future," the report says.
More than 100,000 Gulf War veterans have reported persistent illnesses and thousands are suffering from cancer, heart problems and neurological diseases. More than 4,500 veterans have died since the war. An undetermined number of military civilians and journalists who worked in the gulf and family members of veterans who did not go to war are also sick from war-related illnesses. At the height of the war about 690,000 soldiers served.
The committee made 18 findings and 18 recommendations.
The recommendations include: new legislation to help veterans get medical services and compensation; an independent scientific body to review illnesses; re-evaluation of VA and Defense Department medical registry and evaluation programs; recreation of veterans' medical histories lost or destroyed and presumption of service connected illnesses in those cases; a renewed order from President Clinton to declassify Gulf War documents; and removing the VA and Defense Department as the lead agencies for research of Gulf War illnesses.